While the present invention was developed for use in moving cargo containers to and from the lower lobe compartment of an aircraft, and is described in this environment, it is to be understood that the invention can be used in other confined, elongate environments to load and unload cargo.
While cargo loading and unloading systems have been developed for loading the lower lobe compartment of wide body aircraft, traditionally, the lower lobe compartments of standard sized aircraft have been bulk loaded. That is, in the past, the lower lobe compartments of standard sized aircraft have been loaded by manually stacking cargo and baggage in the compartment. Manual loading has the disadvantage of limiting the size of baggage to those items that can be manhandled. Further, because manual loading is time consuming, it limits aircraft turnaround time.
While, in the past, some lower lobe cargo loading and unloading systems have been proposed and implemented in standard sized aircraft, for various reasons such systems have not been satisfactory. Some prior lower lobe cargo loading and unloading systems have been custom designed for compatibility with specialized containers and aircraft configurations, making them unsuitable for widespread use. Many prior systems have been permanently installed in aircraft, or installed in such a manner that installation and removal is a time consuming job. Such systems do not allow a lower lobe compartment to be rapidly and quickly converted between a compartment containing a cargo loading system and a compartment that does not contain a cargo loading system. Such prior lower lobe cargo loading and unloading systems have simply consisted of balls and rollers located at the conveyor plane and guides and stops positioned to restrain the containers after they have been moved to a storage position. While such systems allow larger containers to be moved and positioned than those that can be manually lifted, positioning of the containers is still, primarily, the result of manual labor.
Modules for carrying cargo and/or baggage are being developed. Such modules have a right rectangular, parallepiped configuration, i.e., all sides are generally rectangular and are sized for compatibility with trucks, railcars, shipping pallets, and the like. In general, such modules are not compatible with previously developed, specialized aircraft lower lobe container loading and unloading systems. Further, the cardboard construction of some such modules makes then noncompatible with conveyor systems composed of balls and rollers.
As a result, there is a need for a lower lobe cargo loading and unloading system for standard sized aircraft that is generally universal, i.e., can be utilized in a wide variety of such aircraft. There is also a need for a lower lobe cargo loading and unloading system that can be quickly and rapidly installed so that the lower lobe of an aircraft can be converted from a compartment that does not contain a cargo loading and unloading system to one that does contain a cargo loading and unloading system and vice versa, in order to change an aircraft configuration from one designed to function in a particular environment to one designed to function in a different environment. Further, there is a need for a lower lobe cargo loading and unloading system that is compatible with cargo containers formed of cardboard. The invention is directed to providing a cargo loading system that meets these requirements.